The Indian equity benchmarks snapped their six-day winning streak on Wednesday as investors booked profits after Nifty surged to record high. The Sensex fell as much as 817 from day's highest point and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 21,998 after hitting record high of 22,249.40.

The Sensex ended 434 points lower at 72,623 and Nifty 50 index dropped 142 points to close at 22,055.

“With December quarter earnings now behind us, Indian markets remained broadly stable this week with Nifty consistently inching up to 22,250 levels. PSU banks continue to rally. Kotak bank announces major rejig in top management, alleviating immediate risk of management attrition. We turn slightly cautions on retail heavy banks amid rising asset quality noise, but do not expect a complete blow out. Zee continued to make headlines with regulators finding a $240 million financial discrepancy in books," said Jaykrishna Gandhi, head - business development, institutional equities, Emkay Global Financial Services.

"All eyes now on FOMC minutes and further comments from Fed officials on when would Fed start cutting interest rates - to be released tomorrow. FIIs continued to be net sellers in the market this week while domestic funds remain buyers. We see lot of NFOs being launched / closed by domestic AMCs over last few weeks. On technical, Nifty continues to close above previous resistance zone of 22,100-22,150. Hence, we continue to watch 22,500 as the next level," Gandhi added.

Nine of 13 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by Nifty Media index's 5 per cent fall on the back of 14 per cent fall in Zee shares after reports suggested that Sebi summoned former directors of Zee for questioning over alleged diversion of funds.

Oil & gas, IT, auto and financial services shares also faced selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares also faced selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices also dropped over 1 per cent each.

Bharat Petroleum was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 3.73 per cent to close at Rs 633. NTPC, Coal India, Power Grid, Wipro, Infosys, Divi's Labs, HDFC Life, Larsen & Toubro, Tech Mahindra and HCL Technologies also fell between 1.66-2.8 per cent.

On the flipside, Tata Steel was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2.09 per cent to Rs 144. State Bank of India, IndusInd Bank, JSW Steel, Sun Pharma, Tata Consumer Products, Mahindra & Mahindra and Grasim were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was negative as 2,373 shares ended lower while 1,469 closed higher on the BSE.